The Son of Franken-Crepe: Erin's Kitchen Disaster

Can you find 5 things that are different between these pictures?
Hint: the direction of the wood grain and the spatula are not the answers we were looking for

I realized yesterday, reading over squeaky mouse’s blog for dessert ideas, that I should confess something. I often…OFTEN…mess things up in the kitchen. It’s part of the process, and none of the recipes here would exist without the 3 mutilated versions immediately prior. The convenience of blogging is, I can post whichever picture I want. But just for a change of pace, let’s see the other side of Erin’s kitchen today.

I’m in pancake mania, and being home sick isn’t helping anything. Someone, tell me, what do you do when you’ve got 500 recipes to try, most of them involve fermented doughs, you’re bored out of your mind (even though you have many better things to do), and it’s breakfast time? Shhh…you’re not actually supposed to give an answer. I like mine. You make fermented buckwheat crepes.

I made the batter yesterday as an experiment because we’re planning some sourdough pancakes this weekend (the binge has no end in sight). It’s been sitting in the living room doing its yeast-gathering thing, and is definitely not a bubbly sourdough starter today, but it’s got a nice eggy texture that was wholly unexpected. I’ve got some leftover Country Corn and Potato Stew (recipe forthcoming), also unexpected, so we’re kickin’ it Erin style and slapping two completely unrelated food items together for a single-serving breakfast, just because we can.


Basic Recipe
Makes 1 mini crepe and 1 shriveled bat-ear look-alike. A useful quantity for 1 not very hungry child

Put1 tbsp canola oil, a dash of salt, and a grind of pepper into a jar.
Add in about 1/3 cup of your fermenting starter (chickpea and buckwheat flour with water, left to sit overnight), which you weren’t supposed to use for another 2 days.
Add a splash of water to get the consistency right, and if you have water kefir or kefir whey handy, use that instead to get some tang in there.

Heat the pan (mine is nonstick, and I didn’t oil it) for about 1 millisecond and toss 1 spoonful (clearly not enough) batter into the pan. Pause thoughtfully as you realize your mistake, then drizzle more batter around the original plop, and turn the pan to coat the bottom, which won’t work because the center is already firmed and the outside is still to runny. Don’t worry, it’s all part of the plan.

Because it seems better to get this painful thing out of the way as quickly as possible, flip the bat-ear before it’s even lightly browned. It should gum up on the spatula, stick to the bottom, and break in multiple places. Then you can attempt to cleverly fold it in half, because…Jesus, I have NO idea why. It seemed logical at the time, but I can’t justify that at ALL. This will make things worse, because it has now dried out too much to fold, and in a fit of panic, you can heave the thing onto the table “tsk” ing. Whisper: “Curse you, you crepe-bastard…”

Don’t worry, we’re almost done. Then you can turn the heat up to just over medium, mix a little more water into the batter, and dump it all into the pan. Amazingly, miraculously, like wine from water, the puddle of monster goo blooms into a lightly sizzling crepe, which, a few seconds after pouring, is ready to be gracefully flipped onto it’s white belly and cooked to golden perfection.

Serve with warmed leftover stew and a few finely chopped leek greens on top. Mop up the liquid left on your plate with the leathery mutant crepe, because one small crepe is not very much food and it's already too late to make something else. Bonus: you've eliminated the evidence of just how badly you can cook.

(Although, this version was actually really good.)

Check back tomorrow for the perfected recipe of sourdough buckwheat crepes!

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Tender Elstar Apple Cake

This cake inspired quite a rant about Swiss food culture, which you can find here. It's a magnificent example of how thought-provoking a simple, light taste can be.

Every week at the market in Basel, I visit the apple stall and smile contentedly. "phew, there are still Elstars." I dread the day when for some reason, my tangy, crisp friends are done for the season or the supply is exhausted. The Elstar is absolutely my favorite apple, with the most flavor of any I have ever tasted, a slight sour bite, and a rich sweet aftertaste. Oh yes, they're divine. As this recipe was inspired by a traditional Swiss recipe (with lots of butter and eggs, so we've modified a few things), it seems only fitting to use a local apple.

The cake itself is beautifully gluten-free because of the polenta used instead of flour. With the addition of soy yogurt instead of milk, it is so moist and tender, I couldn't resist eating the firs tpiece before I took a picture. It is an excellent dessert or breakfast choice, and has much less sugar than most cakes, so it won't throw you into a coma 30 minutes after eating it. Most important, it is yummy yummy yummy, and it's nice ot think that you're eating something that people here have eaten for hundreds of years. I can almost imagine I am eating the first apple-polenta cake if I close my eyes and savor a bite with the air blowing in the window straight off the Rhine...

Tender Elstar Apple Cake
(Timeframe: 3-4 days. For a quick recipe, see the “Notes” section)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup corn flour
• 1 1/2 cups polenta
• ½ cup brown rice flour
• 1 tsp guar gum (opt.)
• 2 tbsp fresh flax meal (opt.)
• 2-3 cups water kefir, milk kefir, or yogurt
• ¼ cup sunflower oil
• 6 crisp Elstar apples, or your favorite local variety
• ½ cup cashews, walnuts, or pecans
• 1/3 cup elderberry blossom syrup* (or sweetener to taste)
• ¼ cup raw sugar
• ½ tsp grated nutmeg
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tsp baking powder (opt.)
• 1 lemon

Directions: (always have all ingredients at room temperature to assist yeast development)
Starter:

1. Mix corn flour, ½ tsp guar gum, and 1 cup of kefir/yogurt in a clean glass container until it is moist and gooooshy. Cover loosely with a cloth and set in a warm place for 1-3 days, until bubbly and fluffy, stirring at least once daily.

Batter:

1. When the starter is ready, mix together the polenta, rice flour, sugar, and 1-2 cups kefir (at least 1 cup, and the rest can be water), or as much as you need to make a stirrable mix
   
2. Add starter, mix well, and cover in a warm place for at least 12 hours.
3. 2-4 hours before baking, activate your nuts by soaking them in water. Drain water when finished and grind the nuts into coarse pieces.
4. Add 1/3 cup water to the flax meal in a sauce pan, and bring to a simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally. Let simmer for a few minutes, remove from heat, and let cool, continuing to stir occasionally.
5. Slice the apples into medium-thin slices, squeezing juice of half a lemon on them and tossing to prevent browning as you go.
6. Preheat oven to 350 F (175 C)
7. Mix brown rice flour, guar gum, and baking powder together, then add to the batter.
8. Stir in the nuts, ¼ cup elderberry blossom syrup (save the rest for garnish), the flax meal mixture, cinnamon, nutmeg, oil, and all but 10 or so slices of apple.
9. Pour batter into an oiled, floured casserole or cake pan, and arrange the leftover apple slices on top.
10. Dust with cinnamon and nutmeg.
11. Bake for 10 minutes and turn the heat down to 325 F (162 C).
12. Bake for 30 minutes, or until firm. Serve with yogurt and drizzle with elderberry blossom syrup mixed with the juice of half a lemon**.

If you find some leftover in a few days, check out Gingerbread Pudding, the cake recycling recipe

Notes:
This is a fermented version of the recipe, which is not necessary, but aids in digestibility of grains and adds a wonderful zing to the flavor. If you would rather make this spur-of-the-moment, cook the polenta in milk or water until done, and treat it as your starter. Begin from step 3 under batter. Leave out the cornflour (it is used in the fermented version as a good sourdough starter flour, but it isn’t necessary to make the cake itself.)

*This is a delicate Swiss specialty which I get from my boyfriend’s mom, and I never saw it in the states or anywhere else. If you can’t find it, use a different sweetener with a light taste, like agave nectar or sugar

**Instead of this mixture, you can do the classic powdered sugar and lemon juice icing and drizzle it on top. Mmmm!

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Fermented Buckwheat Pancake Starter

After reading Wild Fermentation and various blogs about fermentation, and talking a friend who had just discovered some really great fermented pancakes, I have begun experimenting with my own version. The results have been mixed, to be honest, but the starter is at least an excellent beginning. Not just for pancakes, mind you-letting the mixture mature for 24 hours give a thick, gooey batter unlike any gluten-free creation I've ever seen. So far it has been unbelievably helpful in making moister, springier, crumble-less gluten-free loaves of bread! As for pancakes, well, they worked too, but were so gooey that I had a hard time getting a good consistency. So, help me out! Try the starter out and see what works for you...

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sprouted buckwheat groats (or 3/4 cup buckwheat flour plus some water)
• 1/4 cup activated nuts of choice
• 1 cup soy yogurt

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients in a food processor, blender, or a bowl with a hand mixer, and blend until well combined.
   
2. Cover with a cheesecloth and set in a warm place for 12-24 hours.
   

That's it! Now use this as the base for your favorite pancake recipe, as you would use sourdough starter in making bread-just add a little flour, milk, water, and baking powder if desired, and fry it up. If you want to try crepes, add a bit of flour and a lot of milk to get a thinner batter. These are good savory or sweet, with hummus or jam, curry or syrup. Possibilities abound!

Notes:
Suggested uses:

• Binder in veggie patties
• The missing link in gluten free bread
• In vegan 'loaves', 'meatballs' or other vegan meat alternatives
• In GF dumpling dough, for added 'glutinous' texture
  
• ...
  

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